Many of today's computing tasks, such as large enterprise projects, require powerful computer systems and software applications. The use of these software applications may require computer systems with large memory capacity and/or processor speeds, and may include, for example, applications for electronic and/or mechanical design and analysis. These applications may also be partitioned according to function, thereby requiring licenses to be purchased for a large number of applications to complete entire projects for the enterprise.
As enterprises grow, their configurations may become burdensome and difficult to maintain. For example, enterprise needs typically change dynamically with program needs, and one program or cost-center may require more resources than another during, for example, periods of peak processing. During these situations, load balancing of the computing resources may be necessary. Moreover, each cost-center or customer must handle accounting issues for each of their computing resources. For example, in many cases, the number of computing resources and/or licenses resident on those resources in use at any particular time may be monitored and/or allocated to a cost center, as well as its resource. Enterprise needs typically change throughout the lifetime of an enterprise, and as a result the enterprise should be prepared to accommodate the addition or subtraction of additional resources as needed.
Some enterprises may also employ application service providers (ASPs) to provide computer processing capability and applications on an as-needed basis. These enterprises may process their data on the ASP's computer system and software applications, and may then rely exclusively on the ASP to provide access to these applications or may use the ASP to supplement their own resources during busy periods. In addition, enterprises on an ASP network are typically concerned about data security and typically do not wish others to see, copy, or corrupt their data as it travels to or from, or is processed on, the network. In an ASP situation, some enterprises may even process their data on the same server concurrently as their competitors. Unfortunately, ASPs may protect enterprise data through comprehensive access control lists, but they do not typically provide physical isolation and encryption of client data.
In some cases, traditional computing systems have approached these problems by creating network cells and automatically transferring network resources to and from them as needed by using some form of manual configuration. Some applications, such as VLAN Pilot available from Hewlett Packard (HP), and VlanDirector available from Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco), may only configure network devices and create network cells. Unfortunately, this process is usually time consuming, error prone and may give rise to network problems. For example, a security breach or some network down time may occur as a computing resource is manually added or removed from a cell. In addition, monitoring and/or maintaining the required resources is very burdensome. For example, each project within an enterprise may require different network resources using different operating systems and/or applications. Tracking and/or installing these licenses and applications must be carefully performed in order to avoid errors.